You cannot speak truth to power wherever power has no use for the truth. While it can be factually debated forever whether Joe Arpaio violated laws while performing his duties as Sheriff of Maricopa County, what also needs to be equally examined is the Federal government's lack of initiative in support of him during his tenure.
I find McCain's comment that Arpaio "profiled" latinos to be laughable at best. Given the geopolitical context of living in AZ in the early 21st Century, which socioeconomic group of people did McCain expect Sheriff Arpaio to closely follow? While laws are laws and they must be adhered to, I'm not sure that fully legal enforcement of the immigration laws being violated could have been effectively carried out in any other way, given the context. In other words, what was Sheriff Arpaio supposed to do if he wanted to effect the change that the Federal government neglected its own legal obligation to effect?
If someone wants to give me a detailed explanation for how a) border laws get enforced in a meaningful, effective way and b) Arpaio could have otherwise done it with the zero support he received from Federal gov't, please, make my day.